“I should not advise staying at the Savoy,” Holmes said. “Mr. Worth has managed to place two of his associates in the Savoy organization.”
“Who?” Carte asked.
Holmes went on. “James Blake and Cleo James. This evening, Mr. Worth introduced them as his son and daughter. They are both murderers.”
At this, Carte’s dark eyes widened. “And they both know about the performance tomorrow night.”
“They do.”
“But not where it will take place. Even I do not know that.”
“You will be told soon, however, and the set and costumes that now are located on the Shamrock will have to be moved to the new location. When that move takes place it will be observed by whomever Worth has assigned to the task.”
Carte put his hand on the settee to support himself. “I am appalled. I feel responsible.” He shook his head. “This is what comes of being overextended and therefore too willing to accept investment capital. But who would have thought—never mind, it is no good making excuses. I am responsible, and I cannot allow my company to be used in a way that could endanger my performers, let alone our national leaders! Tomorrow’s performance will not take place. We will find an excuse. The influenza, perhaps—”
Lucy spoke up. “I have another idea, Mr. Carte. You gave me the leading role at the direction of Mr. Worth, did you not? I believe his family pride was his motive for elevating me, and it might really get his dander up if he were to read how much I loathe his brother. Could we get that into the newspapers? If he saw it, he might make a mistake.”
Holmes held up his hand. “Thank you, Lucy. You are very brave, but I cannot deliberately expose you to danger.”
The room fell silent. We all looked to Holmes as he continued. “Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Carnegie must be invited to join the Prime Minister’s committee. At our meeting tomorrow morning we must tell them the truth.”
“Others may disagree with you, Sherlock,” said Mycroft.
“Let them,” Holmes replied. “Making our allies aware of the perils that confront us is the only way for our nation to retain its honor. But now the hour grows intolerably late and we must find shelter for Miss Rosario and Miss James. Mycroft, I propose that you leave your two bedrooms to them and that the rest of us spend the hours that remain until tomorrow morning at the Diogenes Club.”
43. ON THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER
At nine o’clock the next morning we reached Rockefeller’s White Star liner. Once outside our coach, we were immediately buffeted by a powerful western wind that chilled my very bones and exacerbated my sense of foreboding. What would Holmes say to our nation’s leaders, and what would be the consequences, both to our nation and to him? These and similar worries filled my thoughts as Holmes, Mycroft, and I came on board accompanied by a Pinkerton guard, who escorted us down to a lower deck to stand before the PM’s committee.
The five members were seated at the round captain’s table in the magnificent high-ceilinged first-class dining saloon, with Lord Lansdowne in the place formerly occupied by Clevering, his assistant. Carnegie, we had been told, had been delayed, but Rockefeller Sr. and J. P. Morgan sat somberly on either side of the Prime Minister, directly facing us. There were three vacant spaces on our side of the table, without chairs. Lord Salisbury gave no indication that we were to join the group at the table. He sat at the center, ashen-faced, and I noticed he fingered the curls of his flowing beard as he spoke.
“Mr. Holmes, you are here at the invitation of Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Morgan. They both telephoned me very early this morning to request that all of us meet here to discuss security arrangements for the conference that has brought them to London. They are aware of certain events that occurred last night, involving a bomb at the Diogenes Club. They refuse to divulge the source of their information.”
Baron Halsbury, the Lord Chancellor, held up his hand. “If I may, Prime Minister.” He was seated closest to us on Morgan’s side of the table, and as he continued, his pug-like features were set even more firmly in the dour frown he had exhibited at our first meeting with the committee at St. Thomas Hospital. “The position of Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Morgan notwithstanding, however, it is my duty to inform you, Mr. Holmes, that the Official Secrets Act governs anything you may have said to either of these gentlemen, and that the penalties—”
“Oh, to hell with your penalties, Stanley,” Morgan interrupted. His florid, choleric features glowed with indignation and his lightning-eyed gaze seemed to overpower the room with the sheer forcefulness of his personality. He turned to Lord Salisbury. “Robert, if you want John D. and me to stay, you had better let us get down to the business at hand, namely whether all our lives are truly at stake here, and what can be done about it.”
There was an awkward silence, and then Lord Lansdowne leaned forward. His high, dome-like forehead bore a waxy pallor, but there was a determined earnestness in his wide, brown eyes, as if he were prepared to do the right thing at any personal cost. “Gentlemen,” he said, “the responsibility for any risk to our lives is mine, since my late assistant created the danger with his treachery. I am most grateful to Mr. Holmes for discovering the cause of the incapacity that allowed Mr. Clevering to attend meetings of this committee in my place. The knowledge has been a great relief to me and to my wife. I for one should be greatly distressed were Mr. Holmes to receive anything but praise from this committee for the energy and acumen he has employed thus far on our behalf.”
Goschen and the Commissioner nodded their assent. The PM was about to speak, but Mr. Rockefeller cut him off. “Mr. Holmes,” he said blandly, with no indication that Holmes and he had ever met, “I understand you are in charge of security.”
“I have been asked to advise—”
“Do you have a plan, sir?”
“I have a course of action to recommend.”
“I expected no less. What do you recommend?”
“I recommend that ‘sources in the government’ announce to the press that Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Morgan and Mr. Carnegie have come to London for a conference, but in light of certain pressing matters in America they must return home at once.”
“Call off the conference?” Goschen said, his voice rising.
“No, sir. Announce that you have called off the conference.”
“What precisely will that achieve?”
“Mr. Worth will believe that he has attained his objective. He will go to the banker who has the bearer bonds—”
Chancellor Halsbury interrupted, “Mr. Holmes, I must protest. You are disclosing confidential—”
“Balderdash,” said the Prime Minister. “Go on, Mr. Holmes.”
“He will go to the banker from whom he expects payment. We can place watchmen at as many of the banks as could possibly be involved, and, if we are fortunate, we will apprehend both Worth and his paymaster. From this we may confirm whether or not the Germans are behind this affair.”
“What makes you think we will succeed?”
“We may or may not capture Worth, but we will succeed in preserving your lives. The meeting that is no longer secret due to the traitorous disclosure of the late Mr. Clevering can vanish. Your next meeting can be secret, indeed. You can meet at another place. All that is needed is for the White Star and the Corsair to depart London Harbor, giving the impression that their masters are on board.”
“I like it,” said Morgan. “When Carnegie arrives, we can all sail on the Corsair. I’ll wager we’ll have an agreement before we reach Southampton. But I want Mr. Carte’s troupe to perform on the Corsair tonight. All the arrangements have been made.”
“Does Mr. Carte know the location?”
“I told Carte I thought a performance on shipboard might be an amusing novelty. But I did not say where.”
“He has rehearsed his troupe on the Shamrock, the smaller vessel docked between this one and yours
.”
“Well, that shows foresight.”
Holmes refused to be distracted. “Two of Mr. Worth’s associates were part of the D’Oyly Carte Troupe until last evening. They witnessed the rehearsal on the Shamrock. Worth will have others watching the docks. If the performance is to be on the Corsair, they will know, and you will not be safe. You must postpone your evening’s entertainment.”
“Oh, come now, Mr. Holmes,” said Chancellor Halsbury. “Are we to turn our tails and run at the threat of a few criminals, when we have an army and a navy at our disposal?”
“I believe these criminals have in their possession more than a ton of stolen dynamite.”
“And your evidence for this belief is what, precisely?”
Holmes was silent.
“Gentlemen, I propose a compromise,” said Lansdowne. “We shall carry on as previously arranged, but the conference will be under the guard of the Pinkertons and a thousand men from the various branches of the British military—under my command. Does that satisfy you?”
Rockefeller and Morgan nodded, as if being the object of such grandiose arrangements was for them an everyday occurrence.
Holmes remained silent.
44. RETURN TO THE SHAMROCK
Shortly thereafter Holmes and I climbed the staircase from the dining saloon to the boat deck in silence. As we reached the daylight at the top, Holmes spoke.
“They are willfully blind, Watson. None of them can bear to look weak in front of the others.”
I took in the bracing chill of the November wind, the scents of the tobacco, grain, fish, and other cargo that daily passed through the great harbor, and the sheer scale of the vista surrounding the wide, glittering gray waters of the Thames. I tried to buck up Holmes’s spirits.
“At least there will be additional security forces.”
“Our leaders and the Americans imagine that there is safety in numbers. That reaction is entirely foreseeable, and therefore Mr. Worth has foreseen it.”
The pale November sun had just begun to rise above the gigantic brick warehouse structures that faced us from across the quay. I had the lonely sensation that Holmes and I were indeed on our own.
The Corsair had docked immediately beside the White Star on our right. The ship had been in the shadows when we had first arrived just before sunrise, but now it was plainly visible. Though smaller than the White Star, it had a more dashing look, a proud air of command. Beneath its steeply raked black smokestack, which gleamed as though freshly painted, its brass rails and polished wood deck and trim seemed to exude a superiority that defied the elements and, by implication, any man foolish enough to challenge the House of Morgan.
Holmes noted my fascination. “Yes, Watson. A most imposing vessel, and we shall board her soon enough. But at present we must turn our attentions to the Shamrock.”
From our elevated position on the boat deck of the White Star, I looked past the Corsair to where the Shamrock lay docked, some fifty yards up the quay. Before her bow, several carriages and cabs had lined up and were discharging their passengers. Beside one of the cabs we saw Miss Rosario and Miss James, with young Mr. Rockefeller, who had escorted them to their morning rehearsal as Holmes had requested.
We strode purposefully toward them along the quay, but before we had reached the halfway point the two ladies turned away from young Mr. Rockefeller and walked up the gangplank to board the Shamrock. Young Mr. Rockefeller turned his back on them and, hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, walked in our direction with downcast eyes. As we drew closer I could see that his face was deeply flushed.
“Good morning,” said Holmes as we came within a few paces.
He looked up, startled. “Mr. Holmes. Dr. Watson. Forgive my inattention. I have brought the ladies from your brother’s flat to their rehearsal. If you will tell me how I can be useful to you, I will be very grateful.”
“We are about to organize a search of the Shamrock,” said Holmes.
“Then I’ll join you there soon. I just want to reassure my mother that everyone is safe.” And with a polite nod, he turned and continued his walk toward the White Star. On the wide quay, with the massive brick warehouses rising up darkly on his right and the two imposing steamships towering above him on his left, Johnny appeared quite solitary and vulnerable.
“Holmes, did young Mr. Rockefeller seem upset to you?”
“Youth can be a difficult advantage to bear,” said Holmes.
45. LUCY MAKES AN OFFER
“Well, he practically proposed to me!” said Lucy. “After all that folderol about wanting to make that senator’s daughter jealous, he just up and changes his mind—”
She broke off, shaking her lovely head in frustration. We were with Zoe on the boat deck of the Shamrock, the four of us huddled at the stern, looking out over the wide, dark waters of the Thames and the many small craft that plied their trade amid the larger vessels, like small fish following greater ones. Behind us members of the chorus and orchestra waited while Carte’s crew arranged chairs for the orchestra and, behind them, the props and stage backdrops that had been put away overnight. Holmes, I knew, was eager to begin the inspection, but his gaze never wavered from Lucy’s face as he asked, “What did he say to you? Try to recollect his words as precisely as you can.”
“He said I was a really good sport for going along with his idea to stir up the rumors. He said that he had never felt so alive as when we were together. He said he wanted us to be together after this was all over. He said he could find some way to arrange that.”
“What did you say to him?”
“The truth. That he is still a college boy. That it’s way too soon to think about such things. Then I laid it on a little bit. I said his destiny was to carry on what his father had begun, and . . . well, that I needed to have my own destiny.” She gave an ironic smile. “I was being polite, actually. What I wanted to do was say, ‘So you think I’ll be overjoyed by your fickle flip-flopping, just because you’re a Rockefeller?’ But I didn’t want to hurt him. He looked pretty done up, though, all the same, so I suppose I did.”
Miss Rosario stood at Lucy’s side. “Loving someone and not wanting to cause hurt are very different things,” she said kindly. “And even a young millionaire cannot expect to go through life without experiencing pain. Young Mr. Rockefeller will get over you soon enough, if you are willing to let him.”
Holmes’s gaze shifted from Lucy to Zoe, and then back. “Johnny may want to convince you,” Holmes said, “as long as the two of you are in London. Even if he is fickle, he also has his pride.”
“I’ll just stay away from him. I have plenty else to do. Speaking of which, Mother, rehearsal is about to start.”
She turned and was about to go when Zoe pressed a letter into Holmes’s hand. “This was delivered a few moments ago. The stage manager gave it to me as we were coming on board.”
Holmes opened the letter. I had a glimpse of Zoe’s name written in crudely printed block letters in black ink. Holmes read aloud, “‘If you wish to recover your Stradivarius, come alone to your flat.’”
“I don’t want to go.”
“This is an obvious trap, or, more likely, a distraction. We shall ignore this message. Better yet, we can send police to your flat.”
Zoe nodded. “But Sherlock, you defeated this man’s brother, and it nearly cost you your life. Now Worth has had years to plan his revenge, and he has told you as much. I hope you will not underestimate him.”
Holmes smiled briefly. “That would be unreasonable.”
“I could shoot him,” said Lucy. As the wind lifted her wide-brimmed hat, she secured it and held it firmly, all in one easy, graceful movement. “I could leave a message for him at the Savoy, ask him to meet me at the restaurant—” She broke off. “But there isn’t time, is there? And he’s not going to show himself now.”
I could see that L
ucy’s youthful bravado was causing discomfort to Holmes as well as to Miss Rosario. Each of them looked ready to reply sharply, but at that moment came the stage manager’s call for the actors and musicians to take their places on the set.
46. A FRUITLESS SEARCH
Shortly afterward, Lestrade strode up the gangplank with a bright-eyed naval officer on either side of him. After he introduced us, Lestrade explained that each officer had a dozen able seamen under his command, and that they would arrive in a few minutes to inspect all decks of the Shamrock.
“We will also need two skiffs,” said Holmes.
“Skiffs, sir?”
“Each with a long-poled gaff, to be scraped along the hull of the Shamrock. The entire length, mind you. We want no hidden lines dangling in the water, ready to pull up some submerged weapon or ammunition.”
The Navy men regarded Holmes with new respect, and the older of the two said, “I’ll see to it, sir.”
“Also, throughout the interior of the ship, pay particular regard to any new wood construction. Sawdust was found in two areas frequented by those who are suspected of this planned attack. Pay particular attention to elements of the stage set that are to be moved to the Corsair. Any areas where a bomb or a weapon or a man could be concealed should be gone over thoroughly. Also, the coal from the ship’s hold should be moved to ensure that no dynamite has been buried beneath it. Any wires or electrical apparatus should be traced to the source and their functions determined to be innocent.”
The Navy men set off to make their arrangements. Holmes showed Lestrade the crudely printed note. Lestrade agreed to send two policemen to Zoe’s flat. Then Holmes said, “Now, Inspector, I have a favor to ask.”
Lestrade’s ferret-like features took on even more of a guarded look.
“I need to know as much as I can about an unfortunate prison guard named Asher, who died near Dartmoor last week. I telegraphed the Commissioner Sunday asking him to make the request of the prison, knowing the prison would respond far more rapidly if the request was made in an official capacity. The report may already have come to the Commissioner’s office and been buried among all his other messages. But I need that report. It may lead to an arrest of extreme importance.”
The Last Moriarty Page 18
